INTERNATIONAL. The Economist: Thinking Spaces this week launched an e-book of its ‘50 favourite spaces’ containing personal insights from the fans who submitted them.

The Economist’s 2011 European brand campaign, ‘Thinking Spaces’, showcases the inspiring places all over the world where people go to think, reaching a community of more than 40,000 fans.

The aim of the campaign was to develop a destination for readers to create, share and explore the spaces where their ideas come from, making it easier for them and their mind to spend a little time together in hard to find, thought-provoking locations.

“It’s a great honour to be featured in the Thinking Spaces favourite list; I thoroughly enjoy viewing and sharing the amazing spaces and I’m a big fan of The Economist. I was so excited to be selected for the e-book. It’s crazy, cool – I’m sincerely honoured,” says Femi Abodunde, one of the 50 fans whose spaces were selected for the e-book.

Spaces were uploaded from all over the world from a total of 100 countries. The top city destinations for spaces include Amsterdam, Istanbul, New York and Berlin, while the top three countries for ‘Thinking Space’ locations were the US, UK and France.

Half of spaces were in urban locations and half in remote settings such as mountains, lakes or rivers. More than 2,000 users uploaded 1,500 spaces; the iPhone app was downloaded more than 8,000 times.

The Economist: Thinking Space Facebook page now has more than 40,000 fans with 8m post views and a potential reach, through friends of fans, of over 13m. On the Facebook page the top countries where fans are based include Italy, Turkey, Spain, Germany, France and Sweden. The top cities where fans live are Istanbul, Warsaw, Madrid, and Stockholm but some are further afield, with Taipei and Dhaka making the top ten.

The Thinking Spaces community is incredibly diverse, with fans visiting, and uploading spaces, from all over the world. These inspiring and thought-provoking spaces and the natural growth of the Facebook page illustrate the success of creating online communities around great content.

Following the success of the Thinking Spaces campaign The Economist Group has now launched a specific strategy in Europe’s northern markets to identify and reach this diverse audience. New brand activities, with a hyper-local approach, begin this spring with a campaign in Hamburg, Germany.

MIDDLE EAST BUSINESS COMMENT & ANALYSIS

INTERNATIONAL. Washington is moving away from the strategy it has followed since the early 2000s - of being the prime military force in regional conflicts - and is shifting the primary burden of fighting to regional powers while playing a secondary role.

INTERNATIONAL. Washington is moving away from the strategy it has followed since the early 2000s - of being the prime military force in regional conflicts - and is shifting the primary burden of fighting to regional powers while playing a secondary role.